First and foremost, thank you! Your generosity over the last two weeks helped No One Left Behind keep 15 families off the streets in the DC area!! Thanks to you, 30 adults and 45 children are still safe in the homes they’ve made here in America. Thank you.

Of course, our work is never done. More families are arriving every month at a pace we simply cannot keep up with. Five new families (10 parents and 16 children) will soon be joining our Rochester community in the next 4 weeks. They come to us, like so many others, to start their new lives with virtually nothing, just what can fit into an ordinary suitcase. We are in desperate need for the money to cover their immediate needs – securing safe/affordable housing, furniture, food, basic transportation and initial employment. Every single area resource; our local government, area faith-based groups, and nonprofits like us at No One Left Behind are completely tapped out. We’re reaching out to you, our local area residents, to ask you to donate and support these new members of our community. Without our help, these families will likely be homeless in the next month. We cannot let that happen. They deserve so much more. As combat interpreters, they served our country, and it is our turn to show them that their #FreedomMatters to us. We need to fulfill our promise to them.

To resettle in the Rochester area, it costs just $533 per person for basic, initial needs like security deposit, rent, groceries, and bus passes. That means it will cost $13,858 to initially resettle these five families (26 people in all)! That is money well spent. Here’s what we know about our new arrivals:

An Iraqi family of 6 with 4 children arrives July 18th and only has 2 weeks of housing secured;

Another Iraqi family of 7 arrives on August 15th;

A couple from Afghanistan arrives in 4 weeks;

A family of 3 arrives from Afghanistan in 4 – 5 weeks; and,

An Afghan family of 8 arrives sometime in August.

And that’s just to get them settled and covered for their first month in America. There are others coming, too, and their needs are just as critical. As interpreters, these men put their lives at tremendous risk to fight beside and support our American military. They are not refugees; they are so much more – loyal allies whose freedom is as important as our own. We owe them the same loyalty and protection they gave our men and women. Help us show them their freedom and safety matter. #FreedomMatters